2nd SetCase# F19CLLG EG Gochanco vs NLRC161 SCRA 655, 1988

Facts:Petitioner union is a local chapter of the Central Luzon Labor Congress (CLLC), a legitimate labor federation duly registered with the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MOLE), while the individual petitioners are former employees of private respondent who were officers and members of the petitioner union. Private respondent is a corporation engaged in packing and crating, general hauling, warehousing, sea van and freight forwarding. Sometime in January 1980, the majority of the rank and file employees of respondent firm organized the E.G. Gochangco Workers Union as an affiliate of the CLLC. On January 23, 1980, the union filed a petition for certification election. On February 7, 1980, the CLLC national president wrote the general manager of respondent firm informing him of the organization of the union and requesting for a labor-management conference to normalize employer-employee relations. On February 26,1980, the union sent a written notice to respondent firm requesting permission for certain member officers and members of the union to attend the hearing of the petition for certification election. The management refused to acknowledge receipt of said notice. On February 28,1980, private respondent preventively suspended the union officers and members who attended the hearing. The common ground alleged by private respondent for its action was abandonment of work on February 27, 1980. All the gate passes of all employees to Clark Air Base were confiscated by a Base guard. Claiming that private respondent instigated the confiscation of their gate passes to prevent them from performing their duties and that respondent firm did not pay them their overtime pay, 13th month pay and other benefits, petitioner union and its members filed a complaint for constructive lockout and unfair labor practice against private respondent. Private respondent filed a clearance to dismiss certain employees, the services of 9 union members were terminated on the ground that their contract expired. 9 employees filed illegal dismissal charges. L.A. Bernardo decided in favor of the employees To reinstate all the suspended/dismissed employees to their former positions without loss of seniority rights and other privileges, with full backwages including cost of emergency living allowance from the date of their suspension/dismissal up to the supposed date of actual reinstatement. The respondent company filed an appeal with NLRC which reversed the decision of the Labor Arbiter granting the clearance for dismissal.Issue: Whether or not there was an error committed by NLRC in rendering judgement?

Held:We are convinced that the respondent company is indeed guilty of an unfair labor practice. It is no coincidence that at the time said respondent issued its suspension and termination orders, the petitioners were in the midst of a certification election preliminary to a labor-management conference, purportedly, to normalize employer-employee relations."5 It was within the legal right of the petitioners to do so,6 the exercise of which was their sole prerogative,7 and in which management may not as a rule interfere.8 In this connection, the respondent company deserves our strongest condemnation for ignoring the petitioners request for permission for some time out to attend to the hearing of their petition before the med-arbiter. It is not only an act of arrogance, but a brazen interference as well, with the employees right to self-organization, contrary to the prohibition of the Labor Code against unfair labor practices. We likewise grant unto said workers another P5,000.00 each to answer for exemplary damages based on the provisions of Articles 2229 and 2231 and/or 2232 of the Civil Code. For acting in gross and evident bad faith in refusing to satisfy the petitioners plainly valid, just and demandable claims, the respondent firm is further condemned to pay attorneys fees. The Court considers the total sum of P20,000.00 fair and reasonable. If only for emphasis, the new Constitution considers labor as a primary social economic force."34 As the conscience of the government, it is this Courts sworn duty to ensure that none trifles with labor rights.WHEREFORE, the petition is GRANTED. The decision of the public respondent. the National Labor Relations Commission, is REVERSED and SET ASIDE [CLLC E.G. Gochangco Workers Union vs. NLRC, 161 SCRA 655(1988)]